OoOOOooOOOoOOoow!

Thanks chaps, last week I slipped over 100 likes on Facebook. Why not throw your thumb in to the pile?

We went to Games Day Eww Kay. Here’s a beautifully cheeky entry in the Duel category. Squats!

Here’s the classic Blue Horrors. This was part of a gorgeous display on Chaos through the ages, which had loads of classic studio models, original artwork and archive publications. Well done Games Workshop, well executed.

Some parts were impossible to get in to (like the screenings of the Ultramarines trailer). Other weren’t.

All in all, a top day out.

The huge hands just remind me of the video to Everlong by the Foo Fighters, where Dave Grohl grows big hands to protect his lady.

How many models are there for Project Change? Well, it’s difficult to count, I’ve broken down the models into the following categories:

• G1 Daemons
• G2 Daemons
• G3 Daemons
• G4 Daemons
• Rogue Trader Renegades
• Thousand Sons
• Fantasy Champions
• Beastmen
• Dragons
• Non-28mm (Epic, Warmaster, Man O’ War)
• Collectibles (e.g. Black Library diorama with Madox)

So, just focussing on the G2 Daemons there are 88 possible models you can make:

1 G2 Lord of Change

13 G2 Pink Horrors
Pink Horror Champion, Pink Horror Standard, Pink Horror Musician, 2 one-piece Pink Horrors, 2 Pink Horrors with 4 tail options

10 G2 Blue Horrors
2 one-piece Blue Horrors, 2 Blue Horrors with 4 tail options

64 G2 Flamers
4 bodies with 4 right arm options and 4 left arm options

Which is a lot of figures.  The Flamers really break it as there are 64 ways of assembling the 12 components.  I think I’ll try collecting one of every component, else I’ll go insane.  Doubly so as I’ve not yet worked out how many ways there are of assembling the plastic G4 Pink Horrors.

Interesting? Lurid? Psychedlic? Well, I’m a little glad I didn’t do it on a larger model. Maybe a more sophisticated approach is called for. And now I realise that going forward I should avoid painting any of Tzeentch’s bird minions in yellows to avoid comparisons with Sesame Street.

I noted with the Epic scale Pink Horror that this generation of Chaos models were laughably out of scale. Let me explain this a little more. Epic is nominally a 6mm wargame, meaning the average trooper measures in at about 6mm. Here’s the Epic Flamer next to an Epic Dark Angel Hunter.

Why this hideous scale fail?

Theory One – the Epic Chaos Daemons were done at a time when Games Workshop were simplifying the amount of detailing on their Epic-scale models for ease of mass production. This meant chunkier details, less details, and bigger models (all the better to put big chunky details on).

Theory Two – Epic is out of scale with itself. People complain about not being able to fit ten Marines inside a Rhino in 40K. Well, try putting thirty 6mm Marines inside a Thunderhawk only 10mm long. Epic models were more abstract counters representing the troop types present on the battlefield, rather than being scale models.

Theory Three – Chaos Daemons should be this big all the time, it’s the 28mm ones that are scaled wrong.

Well, anyway, Games Workshop corrected it in 1998 with the Epic 40K plastic Chaos sprues. Here’s a comparison shot.

This is one of the few examples of Games Workshop’s models getting smaller over time.

Interesting? Lurid? Psychedlic? Well, I’m a little glad I didn’t do it on a larger model. Maybe a more sophisticated approach is called for. And now I realise that going forward I should avoid painting any of Tzeentch’s bird minions in yellows to avoid comparisons with Sesame Street.

I noted with the Epic scale Pink Horror that this generation of Chaos models were laughably out of scale. Let me explain this a little more. Epic is nominally a 6mm wargame, meaning the average trooper measures in at about 6mm. Here’s the Epic Flamer next to an Epic Dark Angel Hunter.

Why this hideous scale fail?

Theory One – the Epic Chaos Daemons were done at a time when Games Workshop were simplifying the amount of detailing on their Epic-scale models for ease of mass production. This meant chunkier details, less details, and bigger models (all the better to put big chunky details on).

Theory Two – Epic is out of scale with itself. People complain about not being able to fit ten Marines inside a Rhino in 40K. Well, try putting thirty 6mm Marines inside a Thunderhawk only 10mm long. Epic models were more abstract counters representing the troop types present on the battlefield, rather than being scale models.

Theory Three – Chaos Daemons should be this big all the time, it’s the 28mm ones that are scaled wrong.

Well, anyway, Games Workshop corrected it in 1998 with the Epic 40K plastic Chaos sprues. Here’s a comparison shot.

This is one of the few examples of Games Workshop’s models getting smaller over time.

The Doomwing was one of the three Dave Andrews Tzeentch-specific Daemon Engines released in March 1993 – the other two being the Fire Lord and the Silver Tower. The concept of welding technology and warp creature together was never introduced properly into 40K-scale until a decade later with the plastic Defiler kit in 2003.

The Doom Wing was a small interceptor armed with a Flame Cannon. Quite how it shot down other aircraft using forward-firing gouts of fire puzzles me, but both fire and flight are Tzeentch’s trademarks. It also carries over the horse skull vibe from the earlier Tzeentch-aligned 40K and Fantasy models.

The colour scheme was inspired by the cover artwork for Queen Rocks.

It would have been perhaps more fitting for the larger Fire Lord model which has more flat surfaces to have fun blending, and also the word “fire” in its name. Oops.

I feel this guy needs to be modelled as part of a diorama with a little plaque that reads, “It was this long”.

As most my G1 Blue Horrors follow the scheme of blue with pink arms, I thought I’d try reversing it for the Pinks. I also feel that that the arms should change colour again at the knuckles. I, however, do not feel that the fingers should have bits of static grass stuck on them as the photo above has. Oops.

There are three variations on Screamer (and indeed all the Pink Horrors of Tzeentch) as there were three sets of legs each of the twelve bodies could be plonked atop. This means there are 36 variations on the original Pink Horrors which will mean years of trawling eBay and pestering people for close ups of their legs.

And now, here’s all three generations of Pink Horror alongside each other.

Notice how the first two iterations are broadly similar and could be mixed together in the same regiment, and how the third is a complete and very wibbly departure. (And notice how the G2 Horror in the middle needs to be modelled as part of a diorama with a little plaque that reads, “It was about this tall”.)

Marauder Miniatures?! They’re not Games Workshop. Well, back in the days Marauder was brand that Warhammer miniatures sculpted by Ali and Trish Morrison were distributed under. They were gradually subsumed back into Citadel in 1993 (according to Source of Legends), though these models are tabbed Marauder and 1995. Who knows. Actually, I’m fascinated to learn the reasons behind the split and subsequent reabsorption.

I recently discovered thanks to the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Group that Marauder also produced a pair of Greater Daemons – one for Khorne and one for Tzeentch. I’m rather excited, as there have been several Lords of Change knocking around eBay that I’ve dismissed as knock-offs. But no! They are official Games Workshop models. And ones I go rabid for as they’re obscure and retro. If anyone out there’s got a photo of the Khorne one, I’d love to see it.

And among the weird Tzeentch conversions were the two Flamer-based ones above I’ve nicked the colour scheme from. (The prototype Flamer made me wonder if originally the Horror bodies were designed to fit on the Flamer torsos, but playing around with them I conclude not.) So here’s my unconverted tribute. It’s come out quite differently as I was really trying to veer away from painting my model red.

Now to add it to the WotR movement trays I line up the Project Change models in. Or is there a better way to display them?

Another of my hobbies is browsing discount toy shops for cheap Transformers knock-offs. On one such stupid adventure I found a Jungle Rack playset.

I bought it in a flash and hurried home excitedly. Some glue, sand, drybrushing, grassing and bushing later I had a gorgeous tiered display piece of just the right size and shape to put in my glass display cabinets.

First attempt at drybrushing a terrain type of thing for a long while, so it was a learning experience. I want some more subtlety which I might achieve with weathering powders. I also want more Jungle Rack playsets, if not least to melt down the tiny plastic lions with matches.